the same time, mitt romney in full-on campaign mode in tampa, florida. and then it was president obama touring coastal new jersey and comforting victims of hurricane sandy, while mitt romney was holding what he called a big victory rally outside miami. and while the romney campaign made sure to have their most telegenic staffers say on camera today that they were going to avoid any partisan commentary today out of respect for the storm victims, they said they were going to avoid any partisan attacks on president obama on this very serious day, they said they would do that, but they apparently really did not mean it, because at a rally in wisconsin today, they had the republican party chairman talking about how america needs to fire barack obama, and saying that the battle to defeat president obama is a battle for this country's freedom. at aally with mitt romney in florida today, they had that state's former republican governor, jeb bush, talking about president obama as a failure, his failure to bring this country together. at the same event, we had a republican state congressma

definitely going to win. >> john mccain is leading in the states he's got to lead in like ohio and florida. we'll pick up pennsylvania. we think we have a good shot at virginia, new hampshire, new mexico, nevada. that's the pathway to victory for john mccain. >> see how all those states were blue? his confident predictions that john mccain was going to win all those states in 2008 were wrong in every single instance. they lost every single one of those states. even though it seemed like he was going to win all of those states the day before the election. he didn't say like he felt they were going to win. he said they have the polling data that showed they were going to win and they did not win in any of those states. this is just part of the way the game is played. it's just bluffing. and that is important context for understanding what's going on in the last four days of the campaign. there are patterns to how presidential elections end. some of the same stuff happens every four years. specifically, in 1992, the republican candidate was poppy bush. he went and campaigned in pennsylvania.

afternoon in hollywood, florida, after 24,000 people turned out last night to hear him in virginia. think about that. 24,000 in virginia last night. 23,000 people in florida today. in concord, new hampshire, this morning, when 14,000 people turned out to hear president obama, that was the largest crowd ever assembled for a political event in the entire state of new hampshire. in the entire history of the state of new hampshire. i realize new hampshire may not be big, but new hampshire is old. and this is the biggest political rally ever held in the state of new hampshire for the entire time that new hampshire has existed. we cannot be sure why more people are turning out to hear president obama today than are turning out to hear mitt romney. maybe it's just the power of incumbency. people want to hear a president speak no matter who the president is just because he's a president. governor romney's rallies have today have been significantly smaller than obama's. for the romney campaign, these are really quite good crowds. all around for both campaigns these are huge crowds in relati

, freeport, illinois, newton, iowa, denver, colorado, miami, florida, we have been every of where. americans everywhere feel the pulse of this country, we can do better. this is an election about the hard working people that i have e met all over this country. so tomorrow we can take a right turn and go back to the policies that hurt the middle class or continue down the path of progress with president obama. i ask you to do one thing tomorrow. get out and vote. that's "the ed show." the "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening. i'm look forward to being here th you all tomorrow night. it's going to be great. thanks for staying with us for the next hour. four years ago tonight, it was actually the night after the '08 presidential election. we voted november 4th. we vote november 6th this time. so november 5th was the night after barack obama had just walloped john mccain in that year's presidential election. you remember the electoral college map. the total 365 electoral votes for obama and only 173 for john mccain. barack obama won that presidential e

better in some of them. two states, he actually did worse. florida was the only state where there was a significant increase. just florida. a state the president didn't even have to win in order to win the election. so paul ryan's theory about how and why they lost, the surprise urban turnout might make him feel better about what happened, but it doesn't explain why. okay. now it's time for round two. things people are saying about the election but it makes them feel better to say it any way. round two. mitt romney in 2012 versus john mccain in 2008. among liberals who are happy that mitt romney lost and among conservatives who are trying to say i told you so about the reasons mitt romney lost, there's been a fair amount of bipartisan anti-mitt romney glee over the idea that mr. romney received even fewer votes for president than john mccain did back in 2008. turns out that is not true. it may have looked like that on election night or on the day after the election. but millions of votes aren't counted right after the election. it takes days and even weeks after the election until you g

shows is that john mccain is leading in the states he's got to lead in like ohio and florida. we're going to pick up pennsylvania. we'll think we got a real good shot in virginia, new hampshire, new mexico, nevada. you know, that's the pathway to victory for john mccain and we're excited. we're hoping to see a lot of people out there in chicago on election night with barack obama experiencing a long, cold night, as we learn that john mccrane surprised them and won. >> it's nice he wishes physical discomfort on his political enemies, just gratuitously throwing that in. but notice what exactly he was so confidently predicting there. the day before the election in 2008, it was mitt romney. these were his predictions for states that john mccain was definitely going to win. >> john mccain is leading in the states he's got to lead in like ohio and florida. we'll pick up pennsylvania. we think we have a good shot at virginia, new hampshire, new mexico, nevada. that's the pathway to victory for john mccain. >> you see how all those states were blue? mr. romney's confident predictions that j

gender gap problem. look at this. florida senate race, republican connie mack lost to democrat bill nilsson by 13 points overall but 20 by women. in missouri, republican todd akin lost to claire mccaskill by 16 points and women, 22 points. tom tom smith in pennsylvania lost 18 to women. richard mour dock lost by six points overall and lost 12 points women. and in virginia, george allen, by six points overall and twice that margin among women by 12 points. in wisconsin, republican tommie thompson lost to tammy baldwin the democrat by five points and his margin by women, admirably enormous by triple that, lost women by 15 points. massachusetts, scott brown republican incumbent lost by eight points overall and 18 points among women. the great state of huo republican josh mandel lost to sherrod brown by five points overall, his margin of defeat among women, 14 points, in montana, denny reberg lost by four points and by women, lost pie nine 9. the republican won by one point and did it no thanks to women, lost wom been in six points so women did not support the guy who won, they supporte

gives them hope right now is this. notice anything in particular about this rally in florida? we chose this photo more or less at random, but because it's pretty much demographically representative. an interesting and smart experiment was done. they had their reporter who was covering president obama on the campaign trail and the reporter covering mitt romney on the trail switch places and start covering the other campaign to see things through the other end of the telescope. the most pointed difference noted by the reporter traveling with obama and then switched to romney, had to do with the crowds. "the crowd is enthusiastic. much like obama's audiences in recent weeks. but they look different. they are noticeably whiter and o older." . republicans and more conservative candidates have had an advantage with older voters. john mccain, even as he was getting clobbered, he won among early voters. the point about whiter voters is very important to republicans this year. in the last 20 years, this is the percentage of the electorate voting for president that is white. so you see the

crist ran for governor of florida the usual way. by eating possum at the local eating possum festival. by shaking a lot of hands. charlie crist knew florida and he knew florida politics right down to the last rescued sea turtle. shortly crist was a moderate republican and a proud member of the reality-based community as a republican. as florida governors go, governor crist was popular. he carried approval ratings of over 50%. but then something happened to florida governor charlie crist. something happened to his career. in february of 2009, in the worst of the economic crisis with the nation shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs, charlie crist hugged the democratic president, he hugged president obama at an event in fort meyers and said that president obama's economic stimulus plan was going to be good for florida and good for the country. a few months after that, he announced instead of running for governor, he was going to make a bid for the senate. at the time the idea was to keep a republican in that senate seat. charlie crist was popular so he presumably could do that.

in hollywood, florida, after 24,000 people turned out to hear him in virginia. think about that. 24,000 in virginia. 23,000 people in florida today. in concord, new hampshire, this morning, when 14,000 people turned out to hear president obama, that was the largest crowd ever assembled for a political event in the entire state in new hampshire. in the entire history of the state of new hampshire. i realize new hampshire may not be big, but new hampshire is old. and this is the biggest political rally ever held in the state of new hampshire for the entire time that new hampshire has existed. we cannot be sure why more people are turning out to hear president obama today than are turning out to hear mitt romney. maybe it's just the power of incoupi incumbency. govern governor romney's rallies have been quite smaller, but these are quite good crowds all around. for both campaigns. in relative terms and in absolute terms. now it's the part of the campaign where we also start watching another variety of huge crowds. look at this. oh, man. crowds of people lining up to vote in florida

ballot question in florida. that opposition succeeded in florida. florida voted that anti-abortion thing down by a 10-point margin. they won pretty much everything they touched. over 97%, over 98%? it was a very winning year for planned parenthood. but the story of why planned parenthood had such a successful election season is not just the story of an individual senator in ohio or virginia or ballot question somewhere. planned parenthood did so well this year because this election ended up turning on women's rights. because they moved on those issues wholesale, nationwide as a party. some of this years's most famous republican candidates are guys who got famous for saying astonishing things. republicans did this to themselves and then democrats wouldn't let them get away with it. republicans tied themselves so tightly to women's rights issues that ideas for cutting off funding for planned parenthood, rolling back access to contraception, all of those things became identified in voters' minds as what you get if you vote republican, what it means to vote republican this year is all

, he's in florida right now heading to ohio next and then ending the day in colorado. republican mitt rom any kicked off his day at an event in des moines, iowa. after that it was on to cleveland, ohio. white house correspondent brianna keeler is in hollywood, florida. where the president should any moment now arrive. he's a little late. it's about 20 minutes past the hour or the moment that people, a huge crowd were expecting to hear from him. what's the holdup? >> reporter: well, you know, he's got a lot of places to go, 20 minutes behind not really surprising. i think that's been happening a lot the last few days, fredericka. but yeah, we'll be keeping an eye out when he speaks so if you want to stop in and see what he's saying, for the last few days leading up to election day, he's concentrating quite a bit of his time in ohio, and also in wisconsin and iowa that midwestern fire wall. and as his campaign sees it, if he does sure ohio, they feel that he will be able to keep the presidency out of the hands of mitt romney. of course florida is also very important. when you look at th

election eve is just so competitive. mitt romney is racing from florida in the morning to new hampshire tonight with stops in virginia and ohio in between. the president is due to speak in madison, wisconsin, later this hour, after which he is off to ohio, to iowa and then finally he plans to settle down in chicago for the night. cnn's dan lothian is waiting for the president in madison. they often say you can tell that time is short and the race is tight by the caliber of the warm-up acts. it's not all about the talking but a bit about the singing. get me up to speed on who the big acts are today. >> reporter: that's right. it's bruce springsteen who will be warming up for the president. he's going to perform for about 30 minutes before the president steps onto the stage. and then we're told that he will be traveling on air force one with the president as he heads to his next stop in columbus, ohio. will also go go to the third stop in ohio. last night was stevie wonder and other performers over the last few weeks to draw the big crowds to these events but also to energize the base to

was just a catastrophe from north dakota to florida and everywhere in between. who was to blame for that? that is not an esoteric matter. there is a named person in charge of making sure republicans win senate seats. there was somebody who was in charge of that. for every election. and that specific person in this election obviously failed catastrophically. that specific person is named john cornyn. today the republican party appears ready to respond to his atrocious failure at this job this week. by giving mr. cornyn a promotion. he's getting a reward for nearly shooting the moon in the senate. for doing as bad as humanly possible. at the last job the republican party gave him. the republican party moving forward, apparently would like him to be the number two republican in the whole senate right behind mitch mcconnell. and that is calling failing up. which is amazing on its own terms. in terms of republicans in the senate. i think we also should wonder if that is instructive for how the republican party is going to deal with the overall question of who their leader is and what the

in florida. that was darlene jones from wftv trying to get an answer from rick scott about this. voters stuck in line for eight hours and more in polling places around the state of florida after governor scott cut the days for early voting and refused to add any of them back when the lines were that long. he says it all worked fine. the right thing happened. florida officials say the lines pop upmostly in big cities with diverse population. they say that as if that's self-explanatory in terms of why you have long lines. but florida officials have you been to l.a.? really big city. we have been getting letters from people who vote in california where they opened tons and tons of polling places that serve much smaller groups of voters than the way you dole with it in florida. in california they vote at the nep tune society. they vote in their neighbor's garage. they voted at headquarters of the venice beach lifeguards. californians do not do is stand in line and wait eight hours to vote. after the cake splat of an election in florida and several other states, we're watching for id

helpful. florida senator marco rubio said, quote, well, senator marco rubio according to journalists, quote, distanced himself. kelly ayotte weighed in on "andrea mitchell reports" today. >> i listened to the comments. i don't know what the context fully was. i don't agree with the comments. we have big challenges that need to be resolved as you know. >> so you're not comfortable with what you heard him say. >> no, i don't know the full context of them, but i don't agree with the comments. >> you know, nobody sounded quite as annoyed with mitt romney in these comments as louisiana governor bobby jindal asked about the romney comments yesterday at the republican governors association conference. >> no, look, i think that's absolutely wrong. two points on that. one, we have got to stop dividing the american voters. we need to go after 100% of the votes, not 53%. i absolutely reject that notion, that description. i think that's absolutely wrong. that is not -- i don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party. and i think that -- that has not got to